February 25

Events

• 1793 - George Washington holds the first Cabinet meeting as President of the United States.
• 1921 - Tbilisi, capital of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, occupied by Bolshevist Russia.
• 1925 - The diplomatic relations between Japan and the Soviet Union were established.
• 1932 - Adolf Hitler obtains German citizenship by naturalization, which allows him to run in the 1932 election for Reichspräsident.
• 1945 - World War II: Turkey declares war on Germany.
• 1948 - The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia takes control of government in Czechoslovakia and the period of the Third Republic ends.
• 1954 - Gamal Abdul Nasser is made premier of Egypt.
• 1956 - In his speech On the Personality Cult and its Consequences Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounces the cult of personality of Joseph Stalin.
• 1991 - Gulf War: An Iraqi Scud missile hits an American military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia killing 28 U.S. Army Reservists from Pennsylvania.
• 1994 - Mosque of Abraham massacre: Dr. Baruch Kappel Goldstein opens fire with an automatic rifle, killing 29 Palestinian worshippers and injuring 125 others.
• 2008 - The country of Kosovo declares independence from Serbia.

Births

• 1842 - Karl May, German writer (d. 1912)
• 1845 - George Reid, fourth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1918)
• 1861 - Rudolf Steiner, Austrian philosopher and educator (d. 1925)
• 1888 - John Foster Dulles, U.S. Secretary of State (d. 1959)
• 1890 - Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician, Jewish wife (d. 1986)

Deaths

• 1246 - Dafydd ap Llywelyn, King of Gwynedd
• 1577 - King Eric XIV of Sweden (b. 1533)
• 1975 - Elijah Muhammad, Black Muslim leader (b. 1897)
• 1994 - Baruch Goldstein, Israeli terrorist (b. 1956)
• 2005 - Peter Benenson, Jewish founder of Amnesty International (b. 1921)